Golden Time

A quiet classroom tinged with a bloody red sunset. There were the shadows of two people. They were none other than Choi Inbae and Kim Insoo. Insoo was looking out the window with a blank look on his face.

“I’m disappointed”

When Insoo said this, Inbae standing behind him scratched his head.

The bandage on his throat was a reminder of his accident in the past.

“Mom said it was time to stop… and if it was not for first aid, it would have been a close call,” said Inbae.

Turning his gaze, he looked at Inbae. Insoo’s face was soaked in the light of the sunset.

With a smile, in no time, he said to Inbae, “I must have been a jerk to believe your family.”

Though that was an expression cursing both of his parents, Inbae could not say anything.

Insoo looked back out the window. He saw Suhyuk and Hana walking alongside the main gate of the school side by side. He imagined her having hugged him tight. Suhyuk, not just content with being a celebrity, was now taking Hana.

“Huh …” Insoo calmed down his troubled heart with quiet breathing.

‘Premature. It is not the right time yet.’

Insoo found it burdensome to wreak havoc on Suhyuk who had just become a celebrity.

‘All this happened because of…’

Insoo, turning back, looked at Inbae again, and said, “Useless motherfucker …”

Insoo went out of the classroom, thinking of Suhyuk wiggling under his feet.

‘Wiggling like an earthworm.’

…………………………..….

After school, they were walking down to the bus stop side by side; Suhyuk, Hana and Dongsu. The trees standing on both sides were as if they were bowing to the three. The trees, dressed in all white, made Hana admire them.

“How pretty!”

Hana, with a red nose, reached out her hands to take snowflakes falling from the sky.

Dongsu shook his head at the appearance of Hana sentimentalized over the falling snowflakes.

“Hey, this is trash falling from the sky. Just trash,” said Dongsu.

Hana, narrowing her eyes, retorted sharply, “You are too dumb!”

Even that reproach of hers seemed beautiful.

“Yeah, I’m dumb. By the way, how many questions did you miss in the mock test?” Dongsu asked Suhyuk.

“Five.”

“Monster!”

Dongsu again grabbed his head, shaking his head from side to side, because he missed half of the questions even though he burnt the midnight oil. Was he just no good at studying? Or was he really stupid?

“Oh, how much percentage of his brain did you say a man used? 10% or 20%? If I had used only 30%, I would have gotten the first in the whole school,” said Dongsu.

Suhyuk laughed at his remark, saying “100%”.

Dongsu and Hana looked at him as if they could not figure out what he was talking about.

Certainly they heard about it somewhere. In magazines, newspapers, and on TV, there was something like ‘one cannot even use half of his brain’.

“Actually we use our whole brain, but use it differently depending on time and place, and on the situation.” Suhyuk said, touching his head with his fingers.

“Do you know how many nerve cells make up the brain?” asked Suhyuk.

“Well, damn many…” It was an expression befitting Dongsu.

“About 100 billion. We are using all of it. If there were any part in the brain that had no use, it would have atrophied and disappeared, with the head changed into only half the size.”

Dongsu slowly nodded his head as if he agreed with his comment.

If a person used only a small part of the brain, there would be no problem in his everyday life even if the brain were severely injured. But what is the reality? Even if one gets even a minor brain injury, a disorder develops.

Like Suhyuk said, it seemed correct to say that a man used 100% of his brain.

Yes, it was obvious. For there was nothing he did not know as far as medicine was concerned.

“Oh…” Dongsu, who admired Suhyuk, suddenly hardened his look.

‘If that’s true, I’m using 100% of my brain like everyone else. Am I dumb from the start? Or do I have to say my brain is just dumb?’

His thinking having reached at that point, Dongsu scratched his cheek quietly.

………..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..

They continued walking along the path, and their backs also loomed larger gradually over time. Those trees, standing on both sides of the path, changed the trios clothes a few times as they themselves changed as seasons passed.

Dongsu became much taller, Hana’s beauty was pure and elegant like a full bloom that seemed to burst at moment, and Suhyuk was transformed into someone with a charming jawline.

Hana said with a grin, “Tomorrow, we’re going to have the results of the midterm grade.”

They already moved to their second year in high school.

***

Again, Suhyuk and Dongsu were assigned to the same class, while Hana was in another class. Dongsu clenched his fist.

“I’ll get within 10th in the class.”

Suhyuk nodded his head, saying, “You can make it because you worked so hard this time. The first place should go to Hana.”

She smiled gently at this. Though it was a very mysterious smile, the two of them could never figure out the meaning behind it. ‘Can Suhyuk’s prediction be true?’

***

A day passed like an arrow, and the three could now confirm their grades.

Lee Suhyuk, he got the first place in the whole school.

Looking at his grades, Suhyuk slowly nodded his head. Though he could not really believe that he got the first in the school, he made it, after all. He really worked hard, sleeping less than 5 hours a day.

“Wow! You, monster!”

Dongsu, looking at Suhyuk was just astonished.

In contrast, Suhyuk encouraged him.

“You can do better next time. School grades alone are not all you need to go to college. If you do well in the SAT, you’ll be alright. You’ve got plenty of time,” said Suhyuk.

Dongsu scratched his head hard. Suhyuk’s encouraging words was no comfort at all to him because he got 30th place out of 31. He beat only one person in the class during this one year. In addition to that, he got ahead of 50 others in the whole school. Those guys are really stupid enough to be beaten by him.

“Suhyuk!”

A sweet voice that could have flowed from the midnight radio. Suhyuk turned his head to the side. Hana was smiling there.

“Congratulations on your first place!”

Suhyuk sighed a bit inside. Beaten by him. she must have been upset very much, though she did not show any feelings. Suhyuk opened his mouth bitterly.

“Thanks.”

Hana made a strange look, saying, “You were the first, but you don’t look good?”

“How about you?”

“Me? I’m second.”

“I’m sorry…”

Her eyes narrowed cutely.

“I guess you didn’t say that to comfort me, right?”

Suhyuk could not open his mouth and smiled with a sorry expression.

***

Did he not get wind of what was going on? Three boys were casting cold gazes toward him over the windows in the hallway. They were a gang controlled by Insoo.

“He seemed to have cheated in the exam, right?”

“Without doing that, how could a guy like him get the first in the whole school?”

Their eyes were filled with distrust. In particular, Insoo was staring at him sternly.

What had they been thinking?

“Let’s go!”

They disappeared from the spot in no time.

***

“Congrats again! By the way, my words alone aren’t enough.”

She touched her cell phone with her white fingers and then showed him her smartphone screen, She booked movie tickets.

“As a celebration gift, let me treat you to a movie!”

Her face looked bright as ever, as if she felt his first place were her own.

When Suhyuk made a perplexed look, she grinned.

Her two pupils seemed full of sharp pieces of glass, with Suhyuk reflected there.

‘Congrats on your first place from the bottom of my heart.’